Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo said he was feeling optimistic he would score an outright victory and avoid a runoff by winning more than 50% of the vote on Tuesday.

“I like where we’re at,” he said in an interview with The Times at his election-night party at the Ebell Club in Highland Park.

With 28% of the vote counted, Cedillo had 53% of the vote, while his closest rival — bike activist Joe Bray-Ali — had 33%. But if Bray-Ali and two lesser-known challengers can push Cedillo below 50%, the top two vote getters would face off in a May runoff election.

Supporters of Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo, awaiting returns Tuesday night, were confident that the incumbent would avoid a runoff.

“It’s still early but the numbers look good,” said Tony Strickland, a Republican who served with Cedillo in the state Legislature, at Cedillo’s election night party at the Ebell Club in Highland Park.

In the vote-by-mail ballots, Cedillo won 57% of the vote, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder. That’s the weakest of any incumbent council member on the ballot, but if he maintains such support among voters who cast ballots Tuesday, he will avoid a runoff election in May.

Carole Miller showed up early for the Yes on S campaign watch party Tuesday night in Hollywood.

A Mid-Wilshire homeowner for nearly 30 years, Miller said she came to support Measure S because she has grown frustrated with projects built near her home that don’t conform to neighborhood zoning rules.

“When people like me bought their home, they didn’t think there would be a skyscraper next door to them or small-lot subdivisions because zoning was supposed to protect them,” Miller said. “City Council has been taking all this money from developers and everybody knows it.”

Dozens of protesters gathered outside Mayor Eric Garcetti's election-night party on Tuesday night to push him to take a firmer stance on defending immigrants from deportation.

"Our friends and neighbors are under attack! What do we do?" a man in a bullhorn shouted as partygoers in suits and dresses filed into the gates of the Laborer's International Union of North America Local 300 headquarters.

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder released its first round of election results minutes after polls closed Tuesday.

They showed Measure S, a controversial slow-growth measure, falling behind early with 4.2% of precincts reporting; Measure H, a quarter-cent sales-tax increase to fund homeless services, had 61% of the vote, but needs about 67% to be approved.

Mayor Eric Garcetti also jumped out to a commanding early lead, garnering more than 80% of the vote.

Mayor Eric Garcetti, facing 10 little-known opponents, was seeking a second term Tuesday in an election that also tested his clout as Los Angeles voters weighed a controversial anti-development measure that he fought to defeat.

Eight City Council seats were also at stake in Tuesday’s primary, as incumbents across the city sought to fend off potentially serious challengers.

In a season when Donald Trump’s tumultuous presidency has dominated politics worldwide, it has been hard for Garcetti and others on the L.A. ballot to capture the public’s attention.